The Small Business Tax Help Blog

Archive for July, 2011

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Question: What proof do I need for FAFSA verification?

I am being asked to show proof of a certain amount reported on ‘worksheet A’. I am a dependent student and my mother filled out her income tax reports. The only amount on worksheet A is the EIC (Earned Income Credit). I already gave provided them with a copy of the income tax reports. What documents do they need to provide proof of this?
P.S. She has no W2 forms

Answer: You need to read the notification that you received carefully, because your school has set out exactly what information they need and what they’re willing to accept.

FAFSAs are selected for verification by the Department of Education, but they simply notify the school that your FAFSA was selected, and it becomes the school’s responsibility to actually complete the verification.

The Department provides all schools with a “recommended” worksheet for verification and they offer suggestions of how a school might complete the process, but each school is free to verify more information than the Department requests, and to establish their own procedures for doing a verification, as long as those procedures are “reasonable” and “consistently applied”.

For questions of income and taxes, the Department of Education recommends that schools request documentation of IRS forms (a tax transcript is acceptable as a substitute for the actual form), W-2s, Form 4868, or a signed statement from the filer of the return. The Department tells the schools that they must require that these tax documents be signed by the tax preparer.

Again, though – it’s important that you follow the specific instructions that were provided by your school’s financial aid office, because they are the ones who have established the verification procedure. If you’re not clear on what forms of documentation they will accept, you should contact the financial aid office and clarify that information.

Good luck to you – I hope that helped.

Question: Where can I find an income Tax Withholding calculator specific to my state, similar to the IRS calculator?

I check my federal Tax Withholding amount to date against the IRS calculator every so often to make sure I am paying only a little more than I need to so I’m not loaning the fed. government tons of money.

I would like to be able to check my state withholding to make sure I am not over paying that as well.
I can’t seem to find a reliable source.

I have found some tables, but they don’t take several variables into account. I looked at this weeks pay stub and feel like I have probably payed my state taxes for the year, the payroll dept. has me claiming zero allowances lol. So I have already given the state several thousand dollars.

I know approximately how much I will make this year and would like to figure out if I have given the state enough of my money.

Answer: I would suggest you read Pub 15, page 35, 36 and so on… to understand how they calculate your withholding.

1/- For example:

You are single, zero allowance, weekly paycheck.

You have 800.00 gross pay every week.

Look at page 36, table 1, you income falls into $704 ——— $1,648

So then your withholding :

$91.40 + 25% ( 800 – 704 )

$91.40 + 25% * 96.00 = $91.40 + $24.00 = $115.40, this is your withholding.

Or you could look at page 39, there are more tables for you.

Here it is :

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15.pdf

This is for Federal withholding only, no State, sorry!

2/- Another way is this web site : www.paycheckcity.com, I have believed you knew it from this forum. You can try both ways to see which one is the right answer. You can have State withholding in here too.
State withholding is always different, each State has its own way to calculate, it is not general like Federal. I hope someone will show you another website.

Eric Tippetts – Secret Video for MLM Home Business Owners!

Question: steps to make my business a legal one?

Even though I have read and read about how to open your own business, I am still very confused as to what the steps are.
I know I need to open an account with the SBA. I know I need to register the name with my state. I know I need a tax id or EIN # (is there a difference between the 2).

What is the first thing I would need to do? How much would it cost my business to do all this?
To be more specific, me and my partner are working together as photographers and we would like to make it legal. We don’t have a set location, as we work on the location the client chooses.
Please if you have any information you can provide, I would really appreciate it.
And please refrain from looking this online and give me links. I need real information from people who know what they’re talking about.
Thanks in advanced.

Answer: You don’t need to do the account with the SBA but you do need to register with the state you live in. A form will be needed that you write down the name of your business, who the owner is, if you’re a sole proprietorship or a partnership, etc. And you get an EIN# which is your tax ID (at least it is for PA and WI).

Here’s info for each state, it actually works very well (yes, I know you said not to send any):

http://www.sba.gov/hotlist/license.html

Every state differs. Since I sell at events or out of my home via internet sales, I needed a mobile sellers permit. A mobile sellers permit in WI cost me $10, it renews automatically each year for free, and I owe sales tax at the end of Jan. for the previous year.

A mobile sellers permit for PA where I do one event cost me $15 and renews automatically for free, but I have to file sales tax twice a year.

I just contacted the IL revenue dept. this afternoon about getting a business license to do one show down in Chicago in November–he walked me through the website and I printed out the 4 page form, state sales tax on that is due every month, but since it’s a one time event I just need to call after the event and suspend the license till I need it in IL again. It’s a free thing with IL, which is good, it offsets me having to report zero taxes collected for the other 11 months and I don’t have to worry about upkeep of the license.
This was the main site he guided me towards:

http://business.illinois.gov/tax_info.cfm

Then he had me search for the form REG-1 which is the request for a business license (here) —

http://www.revenue.state.il.us/taxforms/reg/reg1.pdf

That was all I needed to get started in Illinois. Free, easy, just fill out the 4 pages and send it in.

For a ‘brick and mortar’ actual physical store or rental property to work out of, you have to check with your local city ordinances about licensing and fees, inspections (by the fire dept. mostly), etc.

Open yourself a business account at the bank and get checks for that. That keeps your personal finances separate from the business ones.

And a tax preparer can help you with the forms at tax time.

TAX DAY TEA PARTY 2010

Senate Session 2011-03-09 (15:15:48-17:00:18)